What a Little Birdie Said
by Adriana Snow
Summary: Pearl takes a liking to a little purple bird she finds in The Kindergarten.


Even after all these years, this place put Pearl on edge. Of course, that wasn't really much of a surprise. After all, Pearl was used to the ebb and flow of the Earth, how it reclaimed itself and fixed any damage inflicted on it.

Well, almost any damage.

That's why The Kindergarten was so disturbing: it was exactly the same as it had been centuries ago. It didn't look like Earth as Pearl had come to know the planet. It was dead, sprinkled with old gem tech that had been left to rot and marred by quartz-sized holes.

It was far too easy to be yanked back into memories of the last time she'd been here.

Pearl stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts. They shouldn't have split up to search The Kindergarten. She wondered if Rose and Garnet felt ghosts of the past creeping up behind them too.

There had been reports of quakes around the area. Humans typically steered clear of The Kindergarten, subconsciously knowing it was wrong even if they didn't know the particulars, but there were a few groups that lived near enough that they could tell it was coming from the lifeless gorge.

Garnet had used her future vision, but could find no gem monster responsible for the seismic activity. So, they had decided to check the area manually. It had made sense for them to split up at the time. Pearl was regretting that decision.

There was a scuttling sound. Pearl automatically pulled her spear out of her gem and turned to where she thought she'd heard the noise, every part of her tense. There was another rustling sound and Pearl's eyes narrowed in on one of the holes in the wall. Trying to ignore the memory of exactly what had probably come out of that hole, Pearl crept toward it. She held her weapon tight, poised to attack as she bent down to look into the dark cavern.

The first thing she registered was the eyes which had her tensing. The second thing was an angry squawk. Pearl jumped back as a flurry of feathers shot out of the hole at her. A bird, she thought watching the purple little creature fly away from her.

Her shoulders relaxed as her spear dissipated. She was a bit too jumpy today. She sighed and rubbed her eyes a bit. She just had to check the area she was supposed to check for any corrupted gems and then she could go find Rose and Garnet and they could get out of this place.

She continued on her search, finding nothing of interest. Everything looked exactly how she remembered if from years ago. The silence was deafening here. She just wished something would move.

A couple of seconds later, she got her wish. She jumped a little bit when she spotted something move from the corner of her eye, but she calmed when she realized it was just a bird hopping around a few meters away.

Assumedly, it was the same bird from earlier. Pearl wondered if it lived here, though that would be odd considering the land had been barren for thousands of years. She observed it as it jumped around a bit before flying up to perch on a rock. Birds were probably the Earth animals Pearl was most fond of. They appeared fragile, but in actuality, they had to have incredibly strong muscles in order to propel them into flight. There were so many different types, but she liked the little ones that fluttered around near the temple the most. They always seemed to be singing, calling back and forth to each other with delicate chirps.

She took a step forward and the little animal startled. It tumbled off the rock with an alarmed squawk. After a few moment, its head popped up to look at her. It tilted its head as though scrutinizing her and Pearl smiled on instinct though she wasn't sure if birds understood such body language.

"It's okay," she said in as soft of a voice as she could, "I'm not here to hurt you."

It chirped at her and then took off into the air, flying over her head. Oh well, it wasn't like Pearl expected… Suddenly she felt a weight on her head and there was a purple blur of beak and feathers in her face. It peered into her eyes with a twitter.

"Ah, no, not on my head," Pearl exclaimed shoving at it. It squawked a bit, sounding annoyed as it took off circling her. It landed back on her shoulder a few moments later.

Pearl looked over at the thing not able to see much more than purple feathers at this distance. "I guess this is alright," she sighed. The bird chittered happily in her ear. "Do you want to help me continue to look around The Kindergarten?" she asked it. It doubtlessly had no idea what she'd just said, but its little feet shifting on her shoulder made Pearl feel better about being in this place.

Pearl continued to walk the walls of the Kindergarten. The bird seemed perfectly content to ride on her shoulder as she did so. The little chitters it gave every so often were soothing and Pearl felt herself relax for the first time since arriving. Having something alive around her made the trip so much easier to bear.

Before she knew it, she'd searched the entire area she'd been assigned and had returned to the rendezvous point. Rose was already there waiting for her.

"Oh, Pearl, it looks like you found a friend," Rose said amused when she saw the bird sitting on her shoulder. The creature was too busy cleaning itself to pay much attention to the new person.

"Yeah, it was wandering around The Kindergarten," she said reaching up a hand to pat its head. It pressed itself back against the hand with a happy chirp.

Rose gave a little pleased gasp. "You should keep it!"

"Keep it?" Pearl asked.

"Yes, humans keep birds all the time," Rose explained. "You can bring it back to the temple."

The bird pecked at her ear gently as if to agree and Pearl smiled. "I do like it…" she admitted.

Just then, Garnet walked up behind Rose. "Any luck finding anything, Garnet," Rose asked.

"I didn't find any corrupted gems," she informed them, "though I did find a few spots where it looked like a chunk of rock had been taken out of the far wall." She pointed across the gully.

Pearl heard a gasp from next to her ear and suddenly the bird jumped off her. Midair it transformed into a humanoid shape, landing on its feet to the shock of all three gems. "You have one too!" what had just been a bird exclaimed, but then its eyes locked on Garnet's other hand and she gasped again. "You have two! I only have one," she said pointing at a purple gem imbedded in her chest and then bolting toward Garnet. "Wait, do you only have two or do you have more?" As she asked the question, she started climbing up Garnet, examining different parts of her body. To most people Garnet wouldn't seem affected, but Pearl could tell she was surprised by the slight twitch of her lips.

She peeled the little gem off her shoulder and held her out in front of her to get a better look. "I only have two," she told her. "And you seem to have an amethyst gem," Garnet told her looking over at her teammates. Very small for an amethyst, Pearl thought. "It's very pretty."

"Do you think so?" The amethyst's legs were moving back and forth quickly, not trying to get away, just excited.

"Mhmmm," Garnet affirmed.

"I think yours are pretty too!" Amethyst said. "I've never seen other people with gems before. Are you here for me?"

"No," Garnet said simply.

"Oh," Amethyst deflated, stopping her quest to run on air. Pearl's heart lurched a little at the sad acceptance and loneliness in her voice.

"But," Garnet continued, "we are taking you with us." She shifted her hold on the amethyst, bringing her to her hip so she could hold her with one arm.

"Really?!" She was back to wiggling excitedly.

"Of course," Rose said. "We wouldn't leave you out here alone." Amethyst looked over at Rose and managed to squirm out of Garnet's grip to launch herself at Rose.

"You have one too!" she said, thrilled.

"I do," Rose confirmed bending down so she was eye level. "I'm Rose, nice to-"

She was cut off when Amethyst's eyes lit up on her hair. "Your hair's so pretty." She reached out to grab one of Rose's curls and tugged.

Rose made a little noise, probably more out of surprise than pain, but Pearl still stepped forward to grab the girl. She gently pulled Rose's hair out of her grip. Amethyst didn't seem to mind the hair being taken away from her. She tilted back her head and gave Pearl an upside down smile.

"Hello," she said. "I like you."

Pearl had to clear her throat a bit. "I like you too, Amethyst."

"What's your name?"

"I'm Pearl," she replied.

"That's a pretty name," she said, beginning to kick her feet again. Pearl wasn't as strong as Garnet and wasn't as apt at handling her squirming so she had to set her down.

"We should probably take her back to the temple," Pearl told Rose, laying a hand on Amethyst's head. "We can come back later to look."

Rose nodded, watching as Amethyst shape-shifted into a cat and wound her way around Pearl's legs. "One of us can come back and look at the rocks Garnet saw tomorrow," she agreed.

The three turned to go to the warp pad. "This way Amethyst," Pearl directed her. Amethyst shifted back into her normal form to dance around her as she walked.

"Do you want to see a cool trick?" Amethyst asked Pearl.

Pearl looked down at her with a smile. "Sure."

"Okay." Without any other words, she curled up into a tight ball as if she was going to do a summersault and then suddenly zipped off in a ball of electricity across the gully. The three older gems watched in surprise as she spun to the opposite wall and back a few times. On her last trip, she hit the wall that Garnet had indicated earlier, shaking the entire valley and splitting off some rock.

"Oops," she called. "I only learned it last week. I'm still trying to figure out how to stop."

Garnet adjusted her visor. "I guess we know why I couldn't see any corrupted gems causing the quakes."

Amethyst ran back toward them, accidently running into a boulder in her haste. She shapeshifted back into a bird to fly back toward them.

"Erm, should one of us Amethyst proof the temple before we bring her back?" Pearl asked Garnet.

Garnet contemplated the question for a minute, probably looking into the future a bit. "There would be no point."

"She won't destroy anything, then?" Pearl asked, watching the small quartz dive bomb another boulder.

"I didn't say that."

"Oh."


End file.
